Top 55 Ways to Increase Myelin Naturally (and surprising facts)

In my last post about child abuse (https://bipolar1blog.com/2017/09/26/child-abuse-can-impair-brain-wiring/) I reported that there was decreased myelination in parts of the brain and I wondered if you could do something to increase it. Well there ways to increase myelination of your neurons. Below the link to the articles is an excerpt from the article which lists some of those ways. Very excited that one of them is Lithium!

Ketones (3-hydroxybutyrate) may help support myelin growth by being a source of energy and also a fuel for lipids (R).

The ketogenic diet can improve myelination by compensating for a deficiency in a certain enzyme (AGC1, which helps make N-acetylaspartate in oligodendrocyte). This was tested an individual deficient in this enzyme (R).

Ketones work as precursors for fat synthesis in a developing brain, especially phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol in neurons and myelin cells (oligodendrocytes) (R).

There is a preferential utilization of ketones for the synthesis of myelin cholesterol (R).

High cholesterol in the brain is essential for myelin membrane growth (R).

Oligodendrocytes also use lactate in part to produce membrane lipids presumably for myelin (R, R).

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbate, is important as a co-factor in several enzyme reactions. Ascorbate-dependent collagen synthesis helps with myelination. Ascorbate added to rat Schwann cells and neurons promoted myelin formation (R).

Iron plays a key role in normal cell functions. Normal iron levels are needed for myelin formation. Iron deficiency will lead to less myelination. Therefore, iron increases myelination in the body (oligodendrocytes) (R).

Myelin membranes are particularly enriched with glycolipids, including galactosylceramide (GalCer) and its sulfated form, sulfatide (R).

Concentrations of sulfatides increase during brain development, parallel to an increase in brain myelination (R).

Decreases in myelin sulfatides content and/or changes in their molecule structure have been implicated as important factors in the disruption of myelin structure, with a subsequent attenuation of myelin efficiency as an axonal insulator (R).

Decreases in the content of myelin sulfatides with age has been implicated as a significant risk factor for behavioral deficits observed in normal aging, and age-associated neurological disorders (R).

Vitamin K has been implicated in increasing sulfatides and there is a positive correlation between sulfatides and vitamin K, which is present almost exclusively in the form of Vitamin K2 or menaquinone-4 (MK-4) in the brain (R).

It supports human cognitive functions, including the formation of short-term memory, the consolidation of long-term memory, the ability to create new memories, the ability to retrieve memories, the ability to learn and recall information, the ability to focus attention and concentrate, the ability to reason and solve problems, language skills, and the ability to communicate. It also supports rapid reactions and reflexes (R).

The delivery of progesterone, however, represents a challenge because of its metabolism in digestive tract and liver (R).

Recently, the intranasal route of progesterone administration has received attention for easy and efficient targeting of the brain (R).

Progesterone in the brain is derived from glands or from local synthesis by neural cells. Stimulating the natural formation of progesterone is currently explored as an alternative strategy for neuroprotection, axonal regeneration, and myelin repair (R).

Clinical trials (phase II) have found treatment with testosterone can increase gray matter in males with multiple sclerosis (R).

The researchers concluded:

These observations support the potential of testosterone treatment to stall (and perhaps even reverse) neurodegeneration associated with MS….This is the first report of gray matter increase as the result of treatment in MS…. (R)

The neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) helps regulate myelin formation in the nervous system. An increase of BFNF levels causes an increase in the rate of myelination. This causes an increase in myelin content and thickness (R).